Partners
by Voyager Tip
Summary: While recovering from an injury at headquarters, Jeff meets an old friend of Bogg's and learns something about what it takes to have a great partnership. Another missing moment.


**Partners**

Jeff hopped over to the chair and sat down as Phineas put a pillow on the stool in front of him. He relaxed as his foot settled into the pillow. It felt so much better when it was elevated. Even the short trip from the bathroom to this chair caused his foot to throb painfully every time he hopped. He breathed a sigh of relief and Bogg sat down in the chair close by.

"Wanna play some checkers?" Phineas asked as he reached for a box on the nearby table.

"You don't have to," Jeff said, his voice sounded strange.

Phineas Bogg looked at his partner in surprise. "I thought you liked checkers?"

"You shouldn't have to stay with me all the time. Now that we're back at headquarters, you should go spend time with your friends," Jeff said staring at the floor.

"Well, forget that," Bogg answered immediately. There was no way he was going to leave Jeff alone. The cut on his foot was deep, 30 stitches had been placed last evening. He wouldn't be walking normally for quite awhile.

Jeff was quiet.

"What's with you anyway?" Phineas asked, "you've been acting strange all day."

"I'm sorry I acted like such a baby last night. Really, I don't need you with me all the time. I'm fine now, you should visit with your friends..." Jeff stopped, not knowing how to finish.

Phineas let Jeff talk, hoping he'd start to ramble so he could figure out what was bothering him. As he listened, he understood.

"Did you talk to Randy?" he asked.

"How did you know?"

"When?"

"Last night in the emergency room."

"I was with you all night," Phineas countered.

"When you were at the desk, checking me out, he introduced himself, he said he talked to you earlier in the day and he was looking for you."

There was silence.

"We did talk when you and I first arrived, but I was a little distracted with what was going on with you. He never spoke to me last evening. What did he say to you?" Phineas asked, thinking to himself what Jeff had looked like last evening. It was probably obvious to Randy that he'd been very upset and crying. He'd been tired and in pain and he'd lost a fair amount of blood, he was definitely not at his best.

Jeff shrugged.

"You can tell me," Bogg whispered and waited.

"He said he was your best friend from school, and that you were supposed to go camping together. He said he couldn't believe it when you told him you were voyaging with a kid. That you must've been forced to and..." Jeff paused and he took a shaky breath, "you don't need to stay with me, really. I'm fine. I'm 12 years old, I'm old enough to stay alone."

Phineas watched Jeff, a lump in his throat and anger at Randy gathering at the back of his mind. Other than yesterday, he hadn't even seen Randy since they'd graduated. There were so many things he wanted to say.

"Well, first of all," he began, "where I go and what I do is my decision, not yours and not Randy's." He paused. "And there is no way that I'm leaving you alone, or even with somebody else in this condition, so forget that. And I don't care if you're 12 or 20. We're partners and partners stick together."

Jeff looked at him, a relieved expression on his face. "Really?"

"Really," Bogg said emphatically.

"Randy said partnerships were considered dissolved once you were back at headquarters and they had to be officially restarted."

"Not ours," Bogg paused between the words to emphasize each one.

There was a long silence before Bogg continued, "when Randy and I graduated, we made a promise to go camping together when we met up the next time, so he's disappointed, and I think a little jealous."

"Jealous of what?" Jeff asked.

"Randy and I were roommates, and friends. We did a lot together. He always wanted us to be partners, but I told him I wanted some experience voyaging alone first."

"So he wants to be your partner?" Jeff asked.

"Let's put it this way, he wasn't too happy when he found out I already had a partner."

"Oh," Jeff whispered.

"I guess he'd always thought it was a done deal, us eventually being partners I mean. Anyway, he doesn't realize I'd never partner with him. He thinks we won't be partners because of you, but it's really because of me."

"But you said he was your friend," Jeff said.

"He was, but even back then I knew he wouldn't make a very good partner, not for me anyway," Bogg answered.

"But he really wants to be your partner, doesn't that count?"

Phineas paused, "I don't think so. I think that in order for a partnership to work, it has to go both ways. And I don't want to be partners with him no matter how much he wants to be partners with me."

"Why not?" asked Jeff.

"You mean aside from the fact that I've got a partner already?" Bogg asked.

Jeff looked up and smiled, "yeah, aside from that, why not?"

"Well, to start with, he's very judgmental, always has been. He makes fun of people behind their back if he doesn't think they're good enough. And he has pretty rigid ideas about how men should act."

"You mean like they shouldn't cry?" Jeff asked, embarrassed.

"Yeah, that's a big one," Bogg answered, imagining how Jeff had looked last evening and all the nasty things Randy could've said to him.

They sat in silence.

"He said you would think I was acting like a baby last night," Jeff whispered, "and you wouldn't want to be with anybody like that."

"Did you believe him?" Bogg asked. When Jeff shrugged, Bogg continued, "did I give you the impression that I cared how you acted last night?"

Jeff thought for a moment, "no," he whispered.

"Then why would you believe what he said?"

Jeff shrugged again. "Well, I did cry a lot."

"Yeah and you had a gash that big in the bottom of your foot," Bogg held up his thumb and first finger five inches apart as he spoke.

"I doubt Randy would've cried if it was him," Jeff said, "or you."

"Jeffrey, listen to me," Bogg began in a serious tone, "if I ever got badly hurt and couldn't handle it, I wouldn't want to be with someone that would judge me. That would mean I'd have to worry about two things, the injury itself, and whether or not I could handle it well enough to suit my partner. I don't want to voyage with someone like that. I hope if something like that happens to me that you won't be standing in judgement."

"Of course not," Jeff said immediately.

"Then why would you think I'd be judging you?"

"You mean you really didn't mind how much I cried?" Jeff asked.

"The only thing I minded was that I couldn't do anything to help," Phineas answered softly.

"But you did help," Jeff paused in disbelief, how could Bogg not have know? "You helped a lot. I couldn't have gotten through it if it wasn't for you being there."

"Really?" Bogg asked, his spirits rising.

"Course, how could you not know that, come on," Jeff continued in disbelief.

They sat in silence for a few seconds.

"That Randy would say something like that to you, under those circumstances, is" Bogg stopped, searching for a strong enough word, "unforgivable," he finished angrily. As he looked at Jeff he saw him move slightly and grimace. He glanced up at the clock. "Time for some more medicine," he said and went into the kitchen to get some water and the 2 pills, one for pain and one an antibiotic.

"I don't like how that one makes me feel," Jeff said, pointing to the pain pill.

"What do you mean?"

"Like I don't know what's going on," Jeff explained.

"Maybe we can call tomorrow and see if they'll change it, for now, take it, I want you to get some sleep," Bogg finished as Jeff took the pills.

Within 15 minutes, Phineas could see Jeffrey was more relaxed. He rested his head against the side of the chair and sighed. Phineas watched him and smiled, thinking about how Jeff had said he'd helped him at the hospital. All he'd done was hold him and talk to him while they cleaned his foot and stitched it up. He thought back to last evening, the ordeal had taken over an hour. The bright lights aimed at Jeff's foot had made the entire cubicle hot and that had added to the discomfort. Both of them had been sweating. Outside in the hall another patient had been yelling and the staff was hurrying back and forth, banging equipment around and generally making a lot of noise. At the time, Phineas had tried to comfort him as much as he could. Speaking softly, he had tried to create a separate little world, for just the two of them, trying to isolate them from the noise and confusion. He hadn't thought that it was enough and kept wishing he could take away some of the fear and pain.

After several more minutes, Phineas could hear Jeff's deep breathing and knew he was asleep, helped by the pain pill and his general exhaustion. He walked into the bedroom and pulled down the covers, then set two pillows at the foot of the twin bed. Then he lifted Jeff gently from the chair and carried him into the bedroom. He put him down and made sure his foot was elevated on the pillows. After covering him over, he leaned down and kissed his forehead, wondering what Randy would think if he could see that.

Phineas stood beside the bed in silence, lost in thought. Tomorrow would be another day. Jeff's foot still wouldn't be healed, but it would be better than today. And as soon as he could get around a little better, he would give Jeff a grand tour of Voyager Island. That was one of the benefits of injuries that got you called back to headquarters, you got to spend a little time in this beautiful place. He smiled as he thought about how much Jeff would love that.

The End


End file.
